Pet Forum / Aquaria / Cichlids / April 2005

is this fish caught in the wild?

spots such as: http://www.malawicarsten.dk/img/upload/DSC00080.jpg ?

Directly translated from http://www.malawicarsten.dk/ 's website (he had
no english version of the related article): >>

This is usually flatworms of the Metaceraria type.
This type of flatworm uses snails as the first host, and when eaten by a
fish, it's used as an intermediate host, when the fish is eaten by a
bird, the cycle starts over.

Size ranging from 1-3mm.
They usually live in the skin, eyes, muscles and inner organs of the
fish. Often the fish affected seem skinny and have darker colors than
usual as a side effect.

If the infection isn't massive, they do usually doesn't hurt the fish
and will fall off after a while (seeing as they can't complete the cycle).
If the fish however, is weakened by stress or similar, the flatworms
might break out of their `holsters', adding chance of other types of
infections in the wounds.

normally it shouldn't be necesarry to treat the fishes, but Exrapid have
shown itself to be efficient. When treating with Exrapid, it should be
repeated atleast 5 times before results start to show.
Beond that, mixing Niclosamide and Praziquantel in their diet should do
the trick as well.

 <<

Mind you - this is not -my- words, nor my experience, I have none
whatsoever with this. I merely recognized it, having read his article
before and figured you might find it interresting.

having said that, I'd deem it unlikely (though not impossible) that this
is the case if they're not caught in the wild, or that you've introduced
something else from the outside world lately, as the flatworms shouldn't
be capable of cycling without birds in the loop.

hth

/Tommi